Ekblad ends power-play drought with 2 goals to start Panthers’ trip with win in Detroit

After nearly three months of waiting, Aaron Ekblad was finally at the middle of a celebration to end a power play. The star defenseman, whose season has been mired by injury and uncharacteristically uneven play, was finally back on the score sheet with a power-play goal — only his second of the season and first since before Halloween — and it came at a critical moment for his Florida Panthers.

At the start of another crucial road trip, the Panthers were tied with the Detroit Red Wings in the second period Friday and Ekblad’s goal finally gave them the lead. Another one from the 26-year-old Canadian in the third helped them put away a 3-2 win in Michigan to open their four-game trip.

The Panthers’ trip will only get tougher, though. Two of Florida’s next three games are against some of the best teams in the league and the third opponent is the reigning-champion Colorado Avalanche. The Panthers, who entered the weekend eight points out of postseason position, are feeling urgency to start stringing together wins with the midpoint of the season fast approaching.

Florida’s win against the Red Wings is a good starting point. The Panthers (18-18-4) now have just their fourth winning streak of the season and can try to win three in a row for the first time all year Sunday against the Dallas Stars. While their performance in Detroit was far from perfect, there were still some real positive signs for Florida, starting with the badly needed goal from Ekblad.

There’s no singular explanation for the Panthers’ fall from Presidents’ Trophy winners in the 2021-22 NHL season to potentially out of the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs, but Ekblad’s season-long struggles certainly certainly factor in somewhere.

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When healthy, Ekblad is typically plays something like a James Norris Memorial Trophy contender, scoring a goal roughly once every four games in the prior two seasons, with more than a third of those coming on power plays.

Before this weekend, Ekblad had just four goals — and only one power-play goal — in 28 games and, in tandem, Florida sits outside the top 10 in goals per game after it was the highest scoring team in more than 25 years last season.

His first goal came after the Panthers already staged an early comeback. After giving up a goal in the first 1:04, Florida answered 1:29 later on a shot through traffic by star defenseman Gustav Forsling.

The Red Wings (16-14-4) ultimately outshot Florida, 31-20, and yet the Panthers found a way to win — for only their third come-from-behind victory of the season — because of Ekblad and the power-play unit, and 29 saves from star goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.

With 13:32 left in the second period, the Panthers were on their first power play of the game and star center Aleksander Barkov found Ekblad in the slot for the go-ahead goal and a 2-1 lead. With the 11:49 left in the third, Barkov again set up Ekblad, this time firing a shot off Detroit goaltender Ville Husso pads to tee his teammate up for an easy rebound goal and 3-1 lead.

Florida went 2 for 2 on the power play, scoring its two goals in just 1:07 of power-play time, and 5 for 5 on the penalty kill, including one game-saving kill in the final seconds.

With 40.1 seconds left and the Panthers’ lead down to 3-2 after one empty-net goal for the Red Wings, Ekblad went to the penalty box and gave Detroit a 6-on-4 chance for most of the last minute.

It turned into a frenzy and yet Florida survived with two more saves by Bobrovsky and one huge block by center Eetu Luostarinen with about four seconds to go.